Forked as a Lightning Strike
by EllieMurasaki
Summary: They aren't the only set of siblings Azazel's raising, potential heir and devoted bodyguard, but Sam and Dean are, they know, the best.


Sam steps out of the air and takes Dean's hand as though arm-wrestling. Dean's mind brushes against his and connects.

Lilith's outfit du jour, a brunette preteen, slumps against the altar, eyes staring unseeing. The girl's blood traces a sigil on the floor. Sam grips Dean's wrist and Dean his—you and me till the end of time—and when the sigil is completed and white light flares, Sam lets go and walks into the light.

Sam and Dean compete. Sam wins on quantity, thirty-six to thirty, but Dean wins on artistry. Neither of them gives a damn what the next person through the doors of this Texas juvenile detention facility will think of the blood and bone.

Reapers are just bridges between life and lonely afterlife—sentient, almost-sapient bridges, but about as important in the grand scheme of things as any random tree. Carbon dioxide needs to be converted to oxygen and the souls of the undamned dead need to be somewhere they can't hurt the living, but it's no tragedy if a tree falls in a forest or if a reaper dies. Sam tracks down the one that tried to take Dean years ago, Dean the one that did take Sam, and barely two heartbeats pass between the reapers' deaths.

The perky witch dies bloody. Dean kills the obnoxious witch the moment the newly freed demon possesses the perky witch's corpse. Sam kills the demon almost before the obnoxious witch's corpse hits the ground.

Sam walks out of hell, his brother's soul cradled in his arms. Sam flicks his fingers and the demon who's been keeping things warm for Dean vacates the premises. Dean's body breathes in Dean's soul and coughs and Dean opens his eyes.

Sam crosses the railroad tracks and walks to a cemetery, a gun as old as the tracks in his hand. He puts the gun into the design on the wall of the crypt at the cemetery's heart. The door to hell flies open. Lilith flees. Sam walks in.

Sam holds tight to Dean, feeling Dean's heart beat against his own. Dean gently pushes him away and opens the iron door, then kneels and scratches the hellhound's head before offering his wrist. The hound grabs Dean's soul and rips it out through the radial artery.

Dean kisses a crossroad demon. Sam breathes.

Sam puts a lead slug in his head.

Dean puts a consecrated lead slug in Azazel's head.

Sam kills Lily and Rose. Dean kills Scott and Christie. They double-team Andy and Ansem: these are twins, both born with the potential Sam has, rather than more ordinary siblings by blood or by bond, one of whom has gifts only by osmosis, so they are more of a threat to them than any other pair. Dean kills Ava and Amy. Sam kills Jake and Susan. Sam and Dean discuss it, and with all the threats from the 1982-1983 lot removed, there's no need, they agree, to concern themselves with the 1994 lot yet. Certainly not with the 2005-2006 lot. Sam would prefer them doing his bidding than dead at his hand, anyway.

Azazel has plans for the winning pair. Sam slips this information to Dean the moment he discovers it. They both hide it beneath layers of deception and mental traps and keep a careful eye on the others to see if anyone else learns this or that they already know it. No one does.

Max very nearly kills Dean. Sam paints a mural with Max's blood.

Sam learns how to command demons, how to command humans, how to read thoughts from the chaos that is the human mind, how to move objects without a touch, how to kill with a touch. Dean learns how to defend himself and his brother against all comers. They aren't the only set of siblings Azazel's raising, potential heir and devoted bodyguard, but Sam and Dean are, they know, the best.

Azazel tells all his children that one of them, the one talented enough, skilled enough to survive and with a sibling talented enough, skilled enough to keep them both alive, will rule all the world. The others will be dead or worse. Sam and Dean look at each other and, at the level below conscious thought that Dean learned how to access years ago and has already taught Sam to share with him, assure each other that they two will rule, they two and no other, they'll keep each other safe against anything and everyone, including Azazel.

The home of John and Mary Winchester is consumed by flames. Mary's body and John's are found in the younger son's nursery. The children are never found. A neighbor tells the police that she saw the children leaving the house just before she saw the fire; no one believes her, because she says the baby was carried by a man with yellow eyes.

Sam Winchester is born. Dean swears on the spot that it's the two of them against the world.

Deanna Campbell dies. Samuel Campbell dies. John Winchester dies. Mary Campbell sells her sons not yet born. John Winchester lives.

Dean Winchester steps back in time. When he says he knows where and when the yellow-eyed demon will be, Samuel Campbell believes him.

Azazel finds a Maryland convent that smells of Lucifer's grace.

A voice will shout loudly enough to drive Dean to the floor of an abandoned Maryland convent, next to the sigil into which Sam vanished. The voice will tell Dean that the only way to save the world will be to let him in to his body and soul. Dean will have heard a similar voice speaking from the light from Lilith's death, saying much the same thing to Sam. Dean will say yes.

Sam will step out of nowhere. Dean will take his hand and press his mind against Sam's the way they have done since they were tiny. The connection between them will snap into place, electric, and burn the consciousness of Lucifer from Sam's mind and of Michael from Dean's.

Sam and Dean will not rule the world. Lack of desire, not lack of ability. Maybe in a couple hundred years, if they get bored, or if the choices are a hostile takeover of the world's governments or nuclear winter. The world will be no fun if there's nuclear winter.


End file.
